Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752779AbYBFPMh (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Feb 2008 10:12:37 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751031AbYBFPM1 (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Feb 2008 10:12:27 -0500 Received: from BISCAYNE-ONE-STATION.MIT.EDU ([18.7.7.80]:43913 "EHLO biscayne-one-station.mit.edu" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750921AbYBFPM0 (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Feb 2008 10:12:26 -0500 Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 10:10:56 -0500 From: Theodore Tso To: David Schwartz Cc: Pavel Roskin , rms@gnu.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, jonathan@jonmasters.org, rusty@rustcorp.com.au, pgiri@yahoo.com Subject: Re: ndiswrapper and GPL-only symbols redux Message-ID: <20080206151056.GL27119@mit.edu> Mail-Followup-To: Theodore Tso , David Schwartz , Pavel Roskin , rms@gnu.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, jonathan@jonmasters.org, rusty@rustcorp.com.au, pgiri@yahoo.com References: <20080206105051.GA13874@cs181133002.pp.htv.fi> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.15+20070412 (2007-04-11) X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: 0.00 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 3128 Lines: 62 On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 03:38:52AM -0800, David Schwartz wrote: > > > > Ndiswrapper loads and executes code with not GPLv2 compatible licences > > in a way in the kernel that might be considered similar to a GPLv2'ed > > userspace program dlopen() a dynamic library file with a not GPLv2 > > compatible licence. > > > > IANAL, but I do think there might be real copyright issues with > > ndiswrapper. > > Neither the kernel+ndiswrapper nor the non-free driver were > developed with knowledge of the other, so there is simply no way one > could be a derivative work of the other. Since no creative effort is > required to link them together, and the linked result is not fixed > in a permanent medium, a derivative work cannot be created by the > linking process itself. Indeed, there is a similar issue with libss, which was originally written for use with Kerberos v5, and licensed under an MIT (BSD-style plus you must not use MIT's name in advertising) license. Kerberos V5 was adapted by Sun to create a propietary product called SEAM (Sun Enterprise Authentication Mechanism), and contains a program called kadmin, which uses libss as part of its user interface. In the meantime, libss was enhanced to use a search path to dlopen the first readline library it can find (some are GPL, some are BSD-licensed), so that people could use debugfs while being able to have command-line editing, and this is shipping in e2fsprogs. I used dlopen so that use of libreadline is optional; so if it doesn't fit on a rescue floppy, it's no big deal; you can still use debugfs to edit an ext2/3/4 filesystem. So there was very much a valid technical reason for doing what I did; I wasn't trying to circumvent any license requirements, but trying to solve a perfect valid problem when you only have 1440k on a 3.5" floppy (and libreadline is 296k, or 21% of total amount of space available). But if you compile and install e2fsprogs on Solaris, and then run kadmin, you can have in one address space the proprietary kadmin binary from SEAM, the BSD-licensed libss shared library from e2fsprogs, and the GPL-licensed libreadline shared library. Answer quickly! Is there a license violation, and if so, who was responsible for comitting the license violation? This is my favorate real-life case study that I roll out when I want to torture people who claim that dynamic linking with a GPL shared library automatically results a GPL violation. :-) The bottom line is that you should ask a lawyer, and not believe anyone who has claimed to give you legal advice, whether or not they have talked to "dozens of lawyers". What's most important is the lawyer with whom you have paid money so he can take the facts specific to your case, and apply them to the relevant legal statues in those legal jurisdictions applicable for the software/product in question. Regards, - Ted -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/